Description

Book Synopsis

By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

''One scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment'' The Times

Gurnah is a master storyteller'' Financial Times

On a late November afternoon Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from Zanzibar, a far away island in the Indian Ocean. With him he has a small bag in which lies his most precious possession - a mahogany box containing incense. He used to own a furniture shop, have a house and be a husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise; silence his only protection.

Meanwhile Latif Mahmud, someone intimately connected with Saleh''s past, lives quietly alone in his London flat. When Saleh and Latif meet in an English seaside town, a story is unravelled. It is a story of love and betrayal, seduction and possession, and of a people desperately trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times.



Trade Review
Rarely in a lifetime can you open a book and find that reading it encapsulates the enchanting qualities of a love affair ... one scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment * The Times *

By the Sea

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    A Paperback / softback by Abdulrazak Gurnah

    £9.49

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    RRP £9.99 – you save £0.50 (5%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Tue 29 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Bloomsbury
      Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
      Published 8 July 2002
      ISBN-13 9780747557852
      978-0747557852
      ISBN-10 0747557853
      Also in:
      Fiction Contemporary Fiction

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
      LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

      ''One scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment''       The Times

      Gurnah is a master storyteller'' Financial Times

      On a late November afternoon Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from Zanzibar, a far away island in the Indian Ocean. With him he has a small bag in which lies his most precious possession - a mahogany box containing incense. He used to own a furniture shop, have a house and be a husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise; silence his only protection.

      Meanwhile Latif Mahmud, someone intimately connected with Saleh''s past, lives quietly alone in his London flat. When Saleh and Latif meet in an English seaside town, a story is unravelled. It is a story of love and betrayal, seduction and possession, and of a people desperately trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times.



      Trade Review
      Rarely in a lifetime can you open a book and find that reading it encapsulates the enchanting qualities of a love affair ... one scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment * The Times *

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